Bulgaria, officially Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgarian Republika Bŭlgariya , country occupying the eastern portion of the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. Founded in the 7th century, Bulgaria is one of the oldest states on the European continent. It is intersected by historically important routes from northern and eastern Europe to the Mediterranean basin and from western and central Europe to the Middle East. Even before the creation of the Bulgarian state, the empires of ancient Rome, Greece, and Byzantium were strong presences, and people and goods traveled the land with frequency.

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Village in the Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria.

Harrison Forman

Emerging from centuries of Ottoman rule, Bulgaria gained its independence in the late 19th century, joined the losing side of several conflagrations in the first half of the 20th century, and, despite gravitating toward the Axis powers in World War II, found itself within close orbit of the Soviet Union by mid-century. This alliance had profound effects on the Bulgarian state and psyche, altering everything from land use and labour practices to religion and the arts. As communist governments fell in eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bulgaria was suddenly released from the magnetic field of the Soviet giant and drifted into the uneasy terrain of postcommunism. Today its gaze is firmly fixed on the West; Bulgaria became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2004 and of the European Union (EU) in 2007. The members of the EU engage in the bulk of Bulgarian trade.

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The country is remarkable for its variety of scenery; its rugged mountains and relaxing Black Sea resorts attract many visitors. Like other nations of the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria claims a mix of Eastern and Western cultures, and the mingling is evident in its cuisine, its architecture, and its religious heritage. Though located in western Bulgaria, the capital, Sofia, is neatly positioned near the geographic centre of the Balkan region, and in nearly every other respect it occupies the central position within Bulgaria. With more than one million inhabitants, Sofia has three times as many people as the next largest cities, Plovdiv and Varna. The Bulgarian writer Yordon Radichkov has placed the capital along the axis of two major transnational routes: 1) the historic man-made Silk Road that connects China and the West, and 2) a major natural path of migrating birds known as the “grand route of Aristotle.” According to Radichkov, “The universal core of Bulgaria is to be found at the crossroads of these two routes.”

Land

Nearly rectangular in outline, Bulgaria is bounded by Romania to the north, with most of the border marked by the lower Danube River. The Black Sea lies to the east, Turkey and Greece to the south, Macedonia to the southwest, and Serbia to the west. The capital city, Sofia, lies in a mountainous basin in the west.

Relief

Within a relatively small compass, the Bulgarian landscape exhibits striking topographic variety. Open expanses of lowland alternate with broken mountain country, cut by deep river gorges and harbouring upland basins such as that in which Sofia lies. Three basic structural and physiographic divisions run east-west, splitting the country into the traditional regions of North Bulgaria, including the Danubian Plain and the Balkan Mountains; South Bulgaria, including the Rila-Rhodope Massif; and a transitional area between them.

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North Bulgaria

All but a short section of the northern frontier of Bulgaria is marked by the lower Danube River. The abrupt and often steep banks on the Bulgarian side contrast with the swamps and lagoons of the Romanian side. Extending southward from the Danube to the foothills of the Balkan Mountains is the fertile, hilly Danubian Plain. The average elevation of the region is 584 feet (178 metres), and it covers some 12,200 square miles (31,600 square km). Several rivers cross the plain, flowing northward from the Balkans to join the Danube. The Balkan Mountains border the Danubian Plain on the south. Their rounded summits have an average height of 2,368 feet (722 metres) and rise to 7,795 feet (2,376 metres) at Mount Botev, the highest peak.

Steppe grasslands at Point Kaliakra, Bulgaria, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea.

Oleg Polunin

Transitional region

The mountain chain is larger than the adjacent ranges that run parallel in a transitional region of complex relief. Block faulting—the raising or lowering of great structural segments along regular lines of crustal weakness—has produced there the Sredna Mountains, the Vitosha Massif near Sofia, a number of sheltered structural basins, and the Upper Thracian and Tundzha lowlands.

South Bulgaria

Another mountain mass covers southern Bulgaria. This includes the Rhodope Mountains (Bulgarian: Rodopi; Greek: Rhodopis), which rise to 7,188 feet (2,190 metres) at Golyam Perelik Peak; the Rila Mountains, rising to 9,596 feet (2,925 metres) at Musala Peak, which is the highest point in the country and indeed in the whole Balkan Peninsula; the Pirin Mountains, with Vikhren Peak reaching 9,560 feet; and a frontier range known as the Belasitsa Mountains. These majestic ranges discharge meltwater from montane snowfields throughout the summer, and their sharp outlines, pine-clad slopes, and, in the Rila and Pirin ranges, several hundred lakes of glacial origin combine to form some of the most beautiful Bulgarian landscapes.

Coastal region

Trending north-south at the eastern fringe of three principal regions is the narrow Black Sea coastal region. With the exception of the fine harbours of Varna and Burgas, the coast has few bays, but it does have extensive stretches of sandy beach that are features of a number of picturesque seaside resorts.

Bathers soaking in hot springs, Varna, Bulgaria.

Richard Bickel/Corbis

Drainage

Bulgaria has a complex drainage pattern characterized, with the notable exception of the Danube, by relatively short rivers. The major rivers are the Maritsa (Marica), Iskŭr, Struma, Arda, Tundzha, and Yantra. Overall, more than half of the runoff drains to the Black Sea, and the rest flows to the Aegean Sea.

Bulgaria’s numerous lakes may be coastal (such as the large lakes around Varna and Burgas, both on the Black Sea), glacial (such as those in the southern mountains), structural, or karst in origin. The country has some 500 mineral springs, half of which are warm or hot (reaching 217 °F [103 °C] at Sapareva Banya, in the west). Numerous dams have been constructed in the mountains.

Soils

The varied Bulgarian natural environment has produced about 20 soil types and subtypes, which may be grouped into three main regions. Northern Bulgaria is characterized by the fertile black-earth soils known as chernozems and also by gray soils of forest origin. Southern Bulgaria has forest soils with acidic (cinnamonic) traces—by far the most extensive single category—as well as the modified chernozems known as chernozem-smolnitzas (a dark-coloured zonal soil with a deep and rich humus horizon). The rugged high mountain regions have brown forest, dark mountain forest, and mountain meadow soils.

Climate

Most of Bulgaria has a moderate continental climate, which is tempered by Mediterranean influences in the south. The average annual temperature is 51 °F (10.5 °C), but this conceals a wide variation; temperatures as low as −37 °F (−38 °C) and as high as 113 °F (45 °C) have been recorded. Mean annual precipitation ranges from about 18 inches (450 mm) in the northeast to more than 47 inches (1,190 mm) in the highest mountains. The lowlands receive snowfall from mid-October to mid-May, with an annual average of 25–30 days of snow cover. Hailstorms occur between May and August.

Plant and animal life

The relatively large number of Bulgarian plant and animal species reflects the country’s location adjoining several of the great Eurasian biogeographic zones. During the Pleistocene Epoch (i.e., about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago), life in the region was not destroyed by advancing glaciers as occurred in much of Europe but was actually enriched by the immigration of species from the north, some of which still survive. Influences from the steppes of western Asia also penetrated the region at that time. Nonetheless, most of the plant and animal life is central European, mixed with a type that blends Arctic and alpine characteristics in the high mountains. Steppe species are most characteristic in the northeast and southeast, while the south is rich in sub-Mediterranean and Mediterranean species.

Rila National Park is a refuge for local fauna, such as suslik, rock partridges, chamois, capercaillie, chough, accentor, wall creeper, owls, bats, and martens. About one-third of the nesting birds in Bulgaria can be found in the park, as well as one-third of invertebrates. Fish species include the Balkan trout and common minnow.

The Bulgarian government has introduced a number of conservation measures, including steps to protect soil, water, and air from pollution and to establish protected areas of outstanding interest to naturalists. The Srebarna Nature Reserve, a freshwater lake and bird sanctuary adjoining the Danube River, was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983 and then placed on UNESCO’s endangered list in 1992 after environmental decline; improvements were seen in the early 21st century.

The Republic of Bulgaria occupies the eastern portion of the Balkan Peninsula. In 1946, some 1,200 years after it was founded as a kingdom, it came under Communist control, which lasted until the great political upheaval in Eastern Europe in 1989-90 and the demand for greater freedom (see communism). Its neighbors are Serbia and Macedonia on the west, Romania on the north, and Greece and Turkey on the south. The Black Sea forms its eastern boundary. Area 42,858 square miles (111,002 square kilometers). Population (2015 est.) 7,181,000.